Ragnar Kjartansson's Hypnotic Video Installation at the Met

At the Met's Lehman Wing courtyard, Ragnar Kjartansson's 'Death Is Elsewhere' (2019) features seven screens arranged in a circle, showing two pairs of identical twins—Kristín Anna and Gyða Valtýsdóttir of Múm, and Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National—slowly moving and singing a love ballad in a grassy field under a pale gray sky. The work was filmed at 2 a.m. during the summer solstice near Eldhraun, the world's largest lava field, using seven cameras and 21 microphones. Kjartansson, a former frontman of the post-punk band Trabant, often collaborates with musicians. The installation evokes 19th-century Romantic paintings by Constable and Friedrich, as well as 17th-century Dutch and Flemish works, coinciding with the Met's concurrent exhibition 'In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met,' which includes Jacob van Ruisdael's 'Wheat Fields' (c. 1670). The piece runs through September 2, 2019.